Brighter future for home energy management?

Date:10/16/2012

Company:EcoFactor

Source:ZDNet

I was also intrigued to hear that one of the company’s creating cloud-based home energy management services, EcoFactor, just snagged another $8 million in venture capital – despite the rather tepid climate for cleantech funding this year.

The lead backers in this round were Aster Capital, which is a firm sponsored by Schneider Electric, Alstom and Solvay Rhodia that has $200 million under management; along with Claremont Creek Ventures and RockPort Capital Partners, which are coming back with money after earlier funding rounds.

Here’s the rationale from Todd Dauphinais, a partner at Aster Capital:

“After following the energy management software market for some time, we found EcoFactor’s approach of using Big Data concepts and software algorithms to be far superior to any other residential energy management solution on the market today. EcoFactor has demonstrated significant commercial progress across a number of different channels – including utilities, broadband providers and home energy service companies – by providing both the end customer and strategic partners with real measurable value.”

The company is participating in a wide range of large-scale deployments and pilots. That includes high-profile arrangements with Reliant Energy, which offers the service to customers in Texas; and Comcast, which is preparing to roll out EcoFactor to its Xfinity Home broadband customers sometime in the next 12 months.